Elder Scrolls Online just as important as Skyrim – Bethesda

The Elder Scrolls Online is just as important to Bethesda as Skyrim was, the publisher has said, explaining that it expects the game to grow an audience over time.

Speaking to MCV, marketing VP Pete Hines explained that the upcoming MMO “is a longer-tail thing. But in terms of support, marketing and importance it is certainly equivalent to Skyrim.

“It is a big game that is part of our biggest franchise. There is no way that we would half-way it for something that important,” he continued. “It’s still early, but as we move towards launch next spring, we plan to do a lot of the same kind of things we did with Skyrim in terms of support.”

Despite having launched almost two years ago, Skyrim continues to perform well for Bethesda, consistently placing within the UK Top 40 charts.

Bethesda Game Studios announced recently, however, that it will not be continuing to support the game with DLC, having launched three major expansion packs – Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn – in the years since. Instead, it is moving on to “focus on [its] next adventure”.

“We hope [The Elder Scrolls Online] becomes a game that incorporates everything you’ve come to love about an Elder Scrolls game,” Hines added, “but with the online ability to play with friends, meet folks and take part in giant PvP battles. We want it to feel like an Elder Scrolls game.”

The Elder Scrolls Online is expected to launch on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in spring 2014.

Steve called it “graphically… pretty poor” and “one of the blandest games I’ve ever played” when he went hands-on with the game back in May, yet found “something so compulsive about it, that it near enough defies explanation.”